Manageability: an Oracle fan gets illogical

I was particularly struck by his assertion that SQL Server is easier to manage because it requires fewer steps to achieve any given task. Despite touting this as a scientific assessment Buck Woody fails to provide even the most basic information, such as which versions he's comparing. His "proof" of this statement amounts to an invitation to install MSSQL and see for ourselves.

On the other hand, there was a very interesting presentation at OOW2K5 called "Which Database Is Easier to Manage: Technical Case Study Comparing Oracle, SQL Server and IBM DB2" by Kevin Canady and Aaron Werman of Edison Group, Inc (not Oracle employees) who asserted the opposite. They presented a set of findings based precisely on counting the number of steps reuired to do common database tasks using the vendor's GUI management tool. Oracle have made a lot of progress in manageability in 10g and the Edison Group assessment is Oracle 10g is considerably easier to manage than MSSQL. They have published these findings as head-to-head slapdowns(Oracle 10g vs Microsoft and Oracle 10g vs DB2) but the three-way comparison was dead instructive. In some areas MSSQL is less manageable than DB2. Of course, Canady and Werman were comparing production versions, which meant MSSQL 2000; an old, old product but whose fault is that?

In the Q&A slot I questioned whether counting steps in the vendor's GUI is the appropriate metric for assessing manageability. Particularly for repetitive tasks a GUI is a lot less productive than even SQL Worksheet; besides, many experienced DBAs would have scripts to undertake common tasks. The presenters took the point, but it's the old case of measuring what is what measurable. We can count the number of steps it takes to achieve something in a wizard. It's a lot harder to compare how easy it is to achieve that same thing by the quickest possible means, because that might vary from DBA to DBA: my PL/SQL is quicker than my Python scripting but not as quick as your Perl scripting.

7 Comments:

I am studying databases as part of my final year at university. I need to justify which dbms I am going to use in my project (which is a web based way to cash cheques). Do you think there is any content in these documents that may be of use?

Can you think of any other resources that may be of use to me in order to justify my choice (10G XE). I am reviewing 10G XE, SQL Server XE and MySQL.

Why dont you look at them then decide instead of being a typical student and getting other people to do it for you.

Yeh thanks anonymous for that really constructive comment!

Have you ever done a degree? Have you ever tried to do anything positive? From that comment I really doubt it. I bet your one of those people who responds to technical questions with 'RTFM'. As my mom always says 'if youve gotnothing constructive to say, dont say anything at all!'

Hey, look anon I work damn hard and as such hope to get a good degree out of it. If you want to know how hard just look at my blog and judge for yourself. I ask a nice civilised question, that wasnt even addressed to you and you come back with comments like that?

What kind of a society do we live in where a question evokes an unnecessary response like that?

About Me

I studied history at university but didn't want to stay in academia. After my finals I read "Neuromancer" by William Gibson and decided to try computing. Those were the days when a history graduate with no relevant experience could get a job in IT. Luckily, I had an aptitude. At school, one teacher had repeatedly told my class that history was a training in the gathering, analysis and presentation of data; we scoffed but he was right. Also I enjoyed programming COBOL. It was like being paid to solve crossword puzzles all day.

Since 1992 I have worked on Oracle database systems. Over that time I have worked as a data modeller, designer, developer and DBA. I have also undertaken assignments as a business analyst and a technical architect. If pushed, I would have to say I'm happiest writing PL/SQL programs. I am least happy when attempting to marry a normalised data model to the needs of an ORM tool.

I was made an Oracle ACE programme in 2003 . In the same year I won the Oracle Magazine OTN Contributor of the Year award.